When former eBay Inc. Chief Operating Officer Maynard Webb decided to cut short his retirement and become CEO of LiveOps Inc., he was given a simple message by the company’s venture investors: Put it on track to eventually go public.

And so for the past three-plus years, the Santa Clara, Calif., company has, in a sense, been checking the many boxes that are necessary today to become a public company. LiveOps is not quite done with the process, but it is, concedes Webb and board member and Menlo Ventures’ Managing Director Doug Carlisle, getting closer. Neither seem to suggest it’ll be going out this year, but 2011 seems like a likely possibility for the company, which provides enterprises with an on-demand call center platform and a community of on-demand independent agents.

Among the things LiveOps has done over the past three years are:

Get in strong financial position. The company generated more than $125 million in revenue in 2009, is profitable and currently “sitting on more capital” than it raised, says Webb. Created from the merger of LiveOps and CallCast in 2003, the company has raised a total of $38 million from Menlo, Benchmark Capital, CMEA Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. It last raised capital in 2007 and has no plans to raise any additional capital.

Expand its product offerings. The company began by providing online technology and independent contractors – now numbering 20,000 – to help call-center managers deal with shifting demands. More specifically, it focused on the so-called direct response industry. The company’s technology platform was one of the things that “hooked” Webb. Having watched people generate income on eBay from their home, he saw LiveOps as a continuation, offering people the ability to make money when they had the time to handle calls from their home. Today, in fact, he continues to preach the ability of LiveOps to connect with an untapped work force, such as those who are caring for children or sick or elderly loved ones. While continuing on the sales end, LiveOps has expanded in recent years into the enterprise market, both through its technology platform and its contracted workers. One of the goals in the coming year is to continue to grow and invest in this business. The company has 200 customers, including Salesforce, Pizza Hut, eBay and Kodak.

Put together a strong board. In addition to Carlisle, the other board members are: James Beer, Symantec Corp.’s EVP and CFO; Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Personal Systems Group; Nanci Caldwell, who was an executive vice president and CMO of PeopleSoft Inc.; Ryan Downs, senior vice president of global operations at eBay Inc.; OpenTable Inc. CEO Jeff Jordan; and Bill Trenchard, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who was a co-founder of CallCast Inc. and served as CEO of LiveOps prior to Webb. All except Carlisle and Trenchard joined after Webb became CEO. “I just went out to find talent that could help me fill the gaps we might have as we grow.”
Compile a seasoned management team. In addition to Webb, who also held executive positions with Gateway Inc., Bay Networks Inc., Quantum Corp. and International Business Machines Corp., the team includes CFO Bill Slakey, who joined in the fall of 2008 and has held CFO positions with Extreme Networks Inc., Handspring Inc., SnapTrack Inc., and Tropos Networks Inc. Additionally, the company’s general counsel, Rob Chestnut, as well as its executive vice president of technology and products, Jeremy King, were both, like Webb, executives with eBay.

Carlisle said LiveOps also has upgraded all its internal systems, such as reporting, accounting and human resources so they are running at a level similar to a public company. The company, he said, is “well into that process.”

Webb said that at some point it’ll “just make sense” for the company to go public.

“We expect to go public,” he said. “We don’t expect it immediately. We’re building a company that can last – a great enduring company.”

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